Did the Durbin Amendment Reduce Merchant Costs? Evidence from Survey Results

Debit cards facilitate nearly 50 billion transactions annually — so the fees that debit card networks and issuers assess on each transaction are of great interest to merchants, consumers, and, more recently, regulators. In 2010, the so-called Durbin Amendment of the Dodd-Frank Act aimed to lower merchants' costs of accepting debit cards by capping debit interchange fees. New survey results suggest that the regulation has had limited and unequal effects on merchants. This Economic Brief discusses the causes of these findings as well as the implications of the regulation for end users.